Obama receives humanity award from Spielberg’s Holocaust history foundation
(JNS.org) Famed filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust history foundation, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, on Wednesday presented President Barack Obama with the Ambassador for Humanity Award at a gala event in Los Angeles.
Obama, citing the Syrian civil war and kidnappings in Nigeria, said that “we have not yet extinguished man’s darkest impulses” from the Holocaust era, reported The Associated Press. His remarks also covered the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“It’s up to us to speak out against rhetoric that threatens the existence of a Jewish homeland and to sustain America’s unshakable commitment to Israel’s security,” Obama said.
The event was attended by about 1,300 people and featured a musical performance by Bruce Springsteen. Spielberg established the USC Shoah Foundation in 1994, a year after he completed the Oscar-winning Holocaust film “Schindler’s List.”
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Anti-Semitic materials found in Kansas gunman’s home
(JNS.org) Anti-Semitic materials and information on the local Jewish community was found inside the home of Frazier Glenn Miller, the man charged with carrying out the shooting spree that left three people dead at two Kansas City-area Jewish community sites.
According to the returns of an FBI search warrant, authorities found a list of kosher restaurants, synagogue information, and a printout of the 2014 KC Superstar Competition held at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kan., on the day of the shooting last month, the Kansas City Star reported. Authorities also found several anti-Semitic newspapers and other white supremacist literature.
While no weapons were found in the search, authorities did find several boxes of ammunition and gun manuals.
Miller is charged with capital murder for the killing of William Lewis Corporan, 69, and his 14-year-old grandson Reat Griffin Underwood outside of the Jewish Community Center, as well as Terri LaManno, 53, outside of the Village Shalom Jewish senior center.
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Shimon Peres set to visit White House in June before retiring
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon Peres will meet with his counterpart U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on June 25, just weeks before he is set to retire.
A White House announcement of Peres’s visit was made following a meeting between U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Peres in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Rice was in Israel as part of the U.S.-Israel Consultative Group meetings, where she and other top American officials met with Israel’s leadership on a wide-range of security issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.
Rice told the Israeli leaders that the U.S. “will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that diplomacy is the best way to resolve the international community’s concerns peacefully,” the White House said in a statement.
Peres’s is set to retire following the end of his term as president on July 15.
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Israeli TV shows tapped for U.S. remakes
(JNS.org) Two Israeli television shows have been picked up by U.S. networks for English-language remakes.
NBC has commissioned an American version of the Israeli series “The Gordin Cell” that will be called “Allegiance.” In the Israeli show, an IDF soldier discovers that his family members were allowed to immigrate to Israel from Russia in exchange for working as spies. In the American version, a CIA analyst will uncover a similar secret truth about his Russian parents, reported Forbes.
Meanwhile, according to Globes, Ellen DeGeneres’s production company bought the rights to make a U.S. version of Israel’sChannel 10 reality show “The Gran Plan.” The format for the show has already been picked up by 27 other countries. In the show, three grandmothers use their own life experiences to help young people solve their life problems.
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Egyptian presidential hopeful El-Sisi says he would respect peace treaty with Israel
(JNS.org) Egyptian presidential hopeful and former military chief Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said he would honor the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty if elected president.
“I respect all international accords, including the treaty with Israel,” El-Sisi said in the second part of a wide-ranging interview with Egyptian TV ahead of country’s presidential election later this month, AFP reported.
But El-Sisi also urged Israel to make concessions with the Palestinians to reach a peace agreement, saying that such a development would help Israel’s standing in the region.
“They have to help us with something of value for the Palestinians. Let us see a Palestinian nation with Jerusalem as the capital. That would make us all happy,” El-Sisi said.
“There is an opportunity to give the Palestinians hope, and that hope will open a lot of doors in the region,” he added.
In the first part of the interview, which aired Monday, El-Sisi vowed to “finish” the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Christian Zionist organization sponsors Ukrainian Jewish aliyah
(JNS.org) The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), a Christian Zionist organization based in Jerusalem, welcomed a group of 19 Ukrainian Jews who are set to make aliyah at Israel’s David Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday.
“The unfolding crisis in Ukraine has meant an even more uncertain future for the Jewish community there, and we have acted swiftly once again to bring needy and endangered Jews home from this troubled region. It is a privilege for our staff to welcome this first group home,” Dr. Jürgen Bühler, ICEJ’s executive director, said in a statement.
The immigration of the 19 Ukrainian Jews was sponsored by the ICEJ through Christian donations. The ICEJ has said it has been able to raise enough money to bring 100 Ukrainian Jews to Israel. Over the past few decades, the organization has helped bring more than 115,000 Jews to Israel.
According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, overall immigration to Israel from Ukraine has more than doubled to 777 during the first fourth months of 2014, largely as a result of the political crisis in Ukraine.
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